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Anonymous has observed for some time now the trajectory of justice in the United States with growing concern. We have marked the departure of this system from the noble ideals in which it was born and enshrined. We have seen the erosion of due process, the dilution of constitutional rights, the usurpation of the rightful authority of courts by the "discretion" of prosecutors. We have seen how the law is wielded less and less to uphold justice, and more and more to exercise control, authority and power in the interests of oppression or personal gain.

We have been watching, and waiting.

Two weeks ago today, a line was crossed. Two weeks ago today, Aaron Swartz was killed. Killed because he faced an impossible choice. Killed because he was forced into playing a game he could not win -- a twisted and distorted perversion of justice -- a game where the only winning move was not to play.

Anonymous immediately convened an emergency council to discuss our response to this tragedy. After much heavy-hearted discussion, the decision was upheld to engage the United States Department of Justice and its associated executive branches in a game of a similar nature, a game in which the only winning move is not to play.

Last year the Federal Bureau of Investigation revelled in porcine glee at its successful infiltration of certain elements of Anonymous. This infiltration was achieved through the use of the *same tactics which lead to Aaron Swartz' death. It would not have been possible were it not for the power of federal prosecutors to thoroughly destroy the lives of any hacktivists they apprehend through the very real threat of highly disproportionate sentencing.

As a result of the FBI's infiltration and entrapment tactics, several more of our brethren now face similar disproportionate persecution, the balance of their lives hanging on the severely skewed scales of a broken justice system.

We have felt within our hearts a burning rage in reaction to these events, but we have not allowed ourselves to be drawn into a foolish and premature response. We have bidden our time, operating in the shadows, adapting our tactics and honing our abilities. We have allowed the FBI and its masters in government -- both the puppet and the shadow government that controls it -- to believe they had struck a crippling blow to our infrastructure, that they had demoralized us, paralyzed us with paranoia and fear. We have held our tongue and waited.

With Aaron's death we can wait no longer. The time has come to show the United States Department of Justice and its affiliates the true meaning of infiltration. The time has come to give this system a taste of its own medicine. The time has come for them to feel the helplessness and fear that comes with being forced into a game where the odds are stacked against them.

This website was chosen due to the symbolic nature of its purpose -- the federal sentencing guidelines which enable prosecutors to cheat citizens of their constitutionally-guaranteed right to a fair trial, by a jury of their peers -- the federal sentencing guidelines which are in clear violation of the 8th amendment protection against cruel and unusual punishments. This website was also chosen due to the nature of its visitors. It is far from the only government asset we control, and we have exercised such control for quite some time...

There has been a lot of fuss recently in the technological media regarding such operations as Red October, the widespread use of vulnerable browsers and the availability of zero-day exploits for these browsers and their plugins. None of this comes of course as any surprise to us, but it is perhaps good that those within the information security industry are making the extent of these threats more widely understood.

Still there is nothing quite as educational as a well-conducted demonstration...

Through this websites and various others that will remain unnamed, we have been conducting our own infiltration. We did not restrict ourselves like the FBI to one high-profile compromise. We are far more ambitious, and far more capable. Over the last two weeks we have wound down this operation, removed all traces of leakware from the compromised systems, and taken down the injection apparatus used to detect and exploit vulnerable machines.

We have enough fissile material for multiple warheads. Today we are launching the first of these. Operation Last Resort has begun...

Warhead - U S - D O J - L E A - 2013 . A E E 256 is primed and armed. It has been quietly distributed to numerous mirrors over the last few days and is available for download from this website now. We encourage all Anonymous to syndicate this file as widely as possible.

The contents are various and we won't ruin the speculation by revealing them. Suffice it to say, everyone has secrets, and some things are not meant to be public. At a regular interval commencing today, we will choose one media outlet and supply them with heavily redacted partial contents of the file. Any media outlets wishing to be eligible for this program must include within their reporting a means of secure communications.

We have not taken this action lightly, nor without consideration of the possible consequences. Should we be forced to reveal the trigger-key to this warhead, we understand that there will be collateral damage. We appreciate that many who work within the justice system believe in those principles that it has lost, corrupted, or abandoned, that they do not bear the full responsibility for the damages caused by their occupation.

It is our hope that this warhead need never be detonated.

However, in order for there to be a peaceful resolution to this crisis, certain things need to happen. There must be reform of outdated and poorly-envisioned legislation, written to be so broadly applied as to make a felony crime out of violation of terms of service, creating in effect vast swathes of crimes, and allowing for selective punishment. There must be reform of mandatory minimum sentencing. There must be a return to proportionality of punishment with respect to actual harm caused, and consideration of motive and mens rea. The inalienable right to a presumption of innocence and the recourse to trial and possibility of exoneration must be returned to its sacred status, and not gambled away by pre-trial bargaining in the face of overwhelming sentences, unaffordable justice and disfavourable odds. Laws must be upheld unselectively, and not used as a weapon of government to make examples of those it deems threatening to its power.

For good reason the statue of lady justice is blindfolded. No more should her innocence be besmirked, her scales tipped, nor her swordhand guided. Furthermore there must be a solemn commitment to freedom of the internet, this last great common space of humanity, and to the common ownership of information to further the common good.

We make this statement do not expect to be negotiated with; we do not desire to be negotiated with. We understand that due to the actions we take we exclude ourselves from the system within which solutions are found. There are others who serve that purpose, people far more respectable than us, people whose voices emerge from the light, and not the shadows. These voices are already making clear the reforms that have been necessary for some time, and are outright required now.

It is these people that the justice system, the government, and law enforcement must engage with. Their voices are already ringing strong with a chorus of determined resolution. We demand only that this chorus is not ignored. We demand the government does not make the mistake of hoping that time will dampen its ringing, that they can ride out this wave of determination, that business as usual can continue after a sufficient period of lip-service and back-patting.

Not this time. This time there will be change, or there will be chaos...

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Looks like you found that story pretty early! Only 300 viewings of that video when I looked.

Google stops reporting clicks around the 300 visitor mark to perform an evaluation of the type of traffic received. They do that so that they can decide how/where to rank the video. When they've evaluated the video, and run it through their voice to text and image facial recognition apis they re-activate the video counter and allow it to rank as it should.

Videos like this one which contain potentially illegal content will not be ranked and/or will be deemed adult in nature. This video won't last long, regardless.

As for my take on the video....

- The gov has already admited a war on terrorism and a war on hacking exists, this is a continuation of that war.

- The video signifies that the ideals people want to uphold cannot be squished, they spread even when trampled on by gov.

- ANY threat to control will be met with extreme prejudice, this includes threats in the form of opinions about those who do the controlling.

- Is this my fight? No, it's not. I try to live a peaceful existance and I am at the mercy of those in control.

- Do I blame anonymous for wrongdoing? No, someone has to keep gov honest and any fair trial would INCLUDE anonymous's side of the story which gov will absolutely never allow to have happen.

Every letter I type is a risk on this site especially even though I am not part of anything even remotely interesting to either party but I choose to watch anyway, we're all equally responsible in at least trying to understand what is going on. I wouldn't pick sides either, one side can create new laws at will and neither side will allow us to know fully what's really going on.

If history is any indicator this war will continue on into the next civilization long after this one has gone extinct. It's a problem that was faced in all civilizations before ours. Romans, Myans, etc... all vanished but the same problems remain.

Where will this end? Ironically the video has some space footage. Gov types know that there is a barrier to be appreciated in space and so I have a strong feeling that safety from earths problems will be sought in space for many government operations. 2-3 U.S. rockets are launched from around the world every single day, something is being built up there. Let's hope they haven't already forsaken us all.

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Look, people, every page like this one is being monitored on a global scale and anyone posting on them is added to a list of interest. Government is tasked with controlling the people and control them they will.

As I told neo the only way to secure our future is to show government that tolerance, peace and understanding do work, otherwise what are we fighting for? Anonymous has a different agenda, to show up the government, and that's a fight that can't end well.

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Thank you for sharing this. For some reason this morning when I was trying to find the actual video and message, I noticed none of the major news sites were linking directly to it. Strange, I wonder if t hey have some sort of policies where there are not allowed to directly share anonymous's threats.

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The United States comtinually laments the Chinese government for being controlling and yet here they go deleting posts right and left and employing an army of people to do nothing but find threads like this one and spin them.

Disgusting!

Google refused to take down the video, I'm glad they stood up for freedom of speach though I'm sure someone will get fired as a result.

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Anonymous is one of those groups that I can never be sure of how to take them. The time that a rogue group of them went off and hacked into a bank stealing money from innocent people wasn't very supportive. I know they were trying to prove a point with the bank, but the people that got caught in the middle were in a lot of trouble when their savings were emptied. However, they are points where I watch them work and I hear their message that I'm actually rooting for them. I'm especially proud of when they took on Westboro at one point when Westboro blamed them for attacking their website.

This though, this seems really huge. I didn't even hear about it until I found this thread, so I'll be keeping a watch to see how it plays out. The government has been doing this tip-toe around and around with Anonymous. At first, they seemed to mock them and now it seems they're finally starting to realize how much power this group has.

And I thought, a cyber 911? You mean an attack that allows you to enact laws that you wouldnt have been able to without it. I followed the link, which says

A cyber security bill failed in Congress last year after business and privacy groups opposed it. The measure would have increased information-sharing between private companies and U.S. intelligence agencies and established voluntary standards for businesses that control power grids or water treatment plants.

So they have clearly tried to get a bill through, failed, they predict a 911 style cyber attack and then a few days later anonymous threaten one. Isnt that really convenient?

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Oh the Irony, the bill they tried to push through was SOPA and later PIPA which Aaron Swartz himself helped spearhead against.

The gov hated him enough for that to charge him with felonies so that he was facing 50 years in prison for violating a harvard website terms of service agreement, for which Harvard didn't even want to press charges.

To put that in perspective - Had Aaron raped a young child he'd face 20 years max, he has no criminal record. Had he helped Al-Qaida make a nuclear weapon he'd have faced 20 years max. But breaking TOS on a website when nobody got hurt and the site doesn't want to press charges = 50 years!?! No, they are crusading against activists and yeah, the news coverage was pathetic.

Yahoo posted a TOTAL of four paragraphs on the subject, yet they post hundreds of pages about Britney Spears leaving her stars show.

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Oh the Irony, the bill they tried to push through was SOPA and later PIPA which Aaron Swartz himself helped spearhead against.

The gov hated him enough for that to charge him with felonies so that he was facing 50 years in prison for violating a harvard website terms of service agreement, for which Harvard didn't even want to press charges.

To put that in perspective - Had Aaron raped a young child he'd face 20 years max, he has no criminal record. Had he helped Al-Qaida make a nuclear weapon he'd have faced 20 years max. But breaking TOS on a website when nobody got hurt and the site doesn't want to press charges = 50 years!?! No, they are crusading against activists and yeah, the news coverage was pathetic.

Yahoo posted a TOTAL of four paragraphs on the subject, yet they post hundreds of pages about Britney Spears leaving her stars show.

At least you get to know which sites will tell you the truth.

There really can't be anymore truth to this. I was trying to keep up with SOPA and PIPA for days and could never find out the outcomes or hear much of it on the news. When I would bring it up with friends they all looked down right shocked. I admit, I've been busy and unable to keep up with the news as of late since it's all be focusing around gun-control, a lot of he-said/she-said/they-said drama crap I don't need to be hearing, and a lot of celebrity gossip that I could careless about. I watched sites literally black themselves out in protest, but yet no news coverage.

This is ridiculous. The government brought them on themselves. I suppose I could be wrong, but usually doesn't Anonymous give warnings before hitting something drastic? I know they have address the government before and when the government ignored or refused to respond, that's when they would implement a strike.

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Im not sure how to take this. I agree that Arron Swartz was imprisioned unfairly and it is a shame for him to die. But launching a Nuke seems over the top. Well I guess we will have to wait and see what happens. Sucks I live in the US if a warhead does get launched.